How a Misprinted Phone Number Turned NORAD Into Santa’s Official Tracker for 69 Years

NORAD tracks Santa(Dept of Defense picture by Chuck Marsh)

We are thick in the holiday season and with Christmas Eve just around the corner, those who celebrate know it’s time to prepare the cookies, pour the milk, and keep an eye out for Santa Claus. Now, it’s easier than ever to know when he will be on the way to your area to deliver presents— and when you need to jump into bed to let the big man do his job.

NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, has tracked the holly, jolly man for the last 69 years- and counting.

“It started in 1955,” Col. Jason White said. “Every Christmas Eve, utilizing the myriad of resources that are available to NORAD for the defense of North America, we use those resources to track Santa to make sure he gets through the North America area unimpeded.”

The military command has been fielding calls since 1955, when Air Force Col. Harry Shoup — the commander on duty at NORAD’s predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command — fielded a call from a child who dialed a misprinted telephone number in a newspaper department store advertisement, thinking she was calling Santa.

“A local newspaper had printed a hotline number that kids could call and get an update on where Santa was, but they misprinted the number, and the number that they did print was to the previously NORAD operations center,” he said. “The on-call watch officer answered and instead of saying “hey, you have the wrong number,” and hanging up, played along with the children that called the number that they thought was the correct number.”

Since then, they have fielded hundreds of thousands of calls every year to update callers on where Santa may be on his busiest day of the year. More than 1,250 Canadian and American uniformed personnel and DOD civilians volunteer their time on December 24th to answer the thousands of phone calls and emails that flood in from around the world.

They answer the important questions: if Santa visits everyone (“Indeed!”), how old Santa is (“NORAD intelligence indicates Santa is at least 16 centuries old.”), and if NORAD’s fighter jets have ever intercepted Santa.

“Our aircrafts are on routine patrols and do encounter [Santa] from time to time,” he said. “I don’t think we could keep up with him- he flies at such a high rate of speed.”

According to NORAD’s Santa Tracker website, Santa can travel the world within one day because he, simply, does not experience time the way we do.

“His trip seems to take 24 hours to us, but to Santa it might last days, weeks or even months,” the website reads. “The only logical conclusion is that Santa somehow functions within his own time-space continuum.”

There is a ton of preparation to get ready for the big day, but Col. White says that the actual tracking of Santa is something that NORAD is prepared to do already.

“NORAD’s day-to-day mission is to surveil the airspace and water leading up to North America, so we prepare 265 days a year, 24/7 to achieve that mission,” he said. “When Santa flies, we’re doing our normal day-to-day mission and we just have the honor of helping the big man out.”

At the end of the day, for the volunteers and Col. White, he says that it is an honor to help Santa do his job.

“It’s an honor to defend the United States and keep the country safe, and during the holidays, help Santa and help him do his joyride there unimpeded,” he said. “When the kids call and get an update for Santa, it’s great to hear the excitement in their voice.”

The NORAD Tracks Santa Operations Center is fully operational beginning at 4 a.m. MST on December 24th.

You can call 1 877 HI-NORAD (1 877 446-6723) to talk directly to a NORAD staff member who will be able to tell you Santa’s exact location. Operators are available until midnight.